Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

Go to Google Maps and locate North Grafton, MA. You should be able to easily find the CSX mainline on the north end of the map. The G & U interchnge is clearly visible along Westboro Road (use the satellite mode). Just follow the line south to Milford. Easy peasy...............

The satellite shots look like winter photos since the vegetation is all brown. The line starts to disappear after the Draper mills.

The section of Rt. 16 that runs through Hopedale is not a state road, Milford and Mendon are. In Hopedale the town maintains the road. Out on Rt. 140 that's a different story, the state does control that road.
I do agree completely with the previous post about the traffic nightmare on 16, especially with the bridge in Hopedlae on Mill St. out, a lot more traffic comes through there. The rail will probably be repaired to allow trail traffic to cross 16 before they complete the bridge.

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NYC27 wrote:Not far fetched??? When you consider the grades and curves of the G&U that would be one slow commuter route.

I doubt the state would use the G&U as a commuter line. As previously stated, the grade, curvature, and speed limit would greatly hinder the interoperability of a commuter line on the G&U. That being said, it would be quite a scenic route

The point I was trying to get at earlier was better said by the above poster J. Bond. And as far as Milford disallowing the Hopedale yard to be reactivated, that case was more of an issue of technicalities. The G&U was trying to give the Boston Railway Terminal the ability to use their yard, but the state refused to recognize the BRT as a railroad. They instead categorized it as more of a "transport" corporation because it would only be moving cargo on and off the CSX line. The G&U however, still has full rights to reopen the yard and Milford can't do anything about that. The government was smart back in the day to give railroads immunity against disgruntled NIMBYs.

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OK, let me visualize this.

P&W coal drag up from Providence via the CSX branch from Franklin over the G & U, horns blasting at the 10 grade crossing in W. Upton, or grinding through the neighborhoods in Hopedale (more horns). One problem is that the interchanges face the wrong way and even with push-pull locos, the yard in Milford would have to be extended about a mile north. With all of those hills and curves, it would be an engineer's challenge, but fun to watch and chase.

Back to work.

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Engineer999 wrote:OK, let me visualize this.

P&W coal drag up from Providence via the CSX branch from Franklin over the G & U, horns blasting at the 10 grade crossing in W. Upton, or grinding through the neighborhoods in Hopedale (more horns). One problem is that the interchanges face the wrong way and even with push-pull locos, the yard in Milford would have to be extended about a mile north. With all of those hills and curves, it would be an engineer's challenge, but fun to watch and chase.

Back to work.

I don't think J.Bond really thinks that would ever happen anytime soon. He probably just put that so he can show it to his nimby friends and get a laugh at the reaction. It was only recently that they put the second track back in from framingham to worcetor so it has plenty of capacity.

The Grafton yard once had a leg of the wye facing Worcester. You can see the outline if you look carefully. It does go thru somebody's house, but I suppose could be rebuilt if the house and nimby's move out.

Can you say: "EMINENT DOMAIN?"
Down he-yah in CT we've proved you can get anything over on anyone and move them out of your way for whatever reason,...
as long as you have a slightly opaque justification for taking the land!

Cosmo, it's not QUITE that easy these days, especially after the New London debacle of recent memory. I don't think gummint at any level would have quite the zeal to do that again...

H.F.Malone wrote:Cosmo, it's not QUITE that easy these days, especially after the New London debacle of recent memory. I don't think gummint at any level would have quite the zeal to do that again...

Actually, the "New London Debacle" is exactly what I'm talking about. Even after going to the supreme court, the residents still lost. HOWEVER,.. there are still two fundimental differences:
1) The railroad was already there first (in this case,)
2) The railroad really WOULD be serving more of the general public,
and 3) in this case it's one house encroaching on rr ROW, not an entire neiborhood.
Now, I'm not saying that E D is really the way to go, (it's meant to be used as a last resort when all other means have failed,) but I belive in this case it would be more easily justified.
However, HF, you DO make a good point that noone wants a repeat of New London in the Grafton area, so I doubt anyone's going to be willing to go that route right away.

The easiest (an probably cheapest) way to fix this problem is to put a loco at each end of the train, and work from the facing loco. If you don't want to drag a dead locomotive around, then put some R.C. electronics in a caboose and then run the train from there when needed. If G&U hauled any online or through freight to a yard on the CSX someplace near Worcester, then they could reverse direction in North Grafton and shoot down the mainline.

We are a long way from that right now. I noticed on Wednesday that the brush cutter is working it's way south out of W. Upton toward Hopedale. I don't know how far they ave gotten, but that is a good sign.

Is the online industry in W. Upton behind the yard there, or further down the line toward Hopedale?

Engineer999

Engineer999 wrote:The easiest (an probably cheapest) way to fix this problem is to put a loco at each end of the train, and work from the facing loco. If you don't want to drag a dead locomotive around, then put some R.C. electronics in a caboose and then run the train from there when needed. If G&U hauled any online or through freight to a yard on the CSX someplace near Worcester, then they could reverse direction in North Grafton and shoot down the mainline.

We are a long way from that right now. I noticed on Wednesday that the brush cutter is working it's way south out of W. Upton toward Hopedale. I don't know how far they ave gotten, but that is a good sign.

Is the online industry in W. Upton behind the yard there, or further down the line toward Hopedale?
Engineer999

There is no online industry, per se, south of North Grafton, but there is the site (siding, storage building, and lineside building) where roadsalt was once unloaded. This is contiguous with the larger parcel of land that the new (half) owner is interested in purchasing. All of this is on the west side of what you could call a yard, but really just a runaround track at this point.